The recent international break saw the rise to prominence of a group who've flown under the radar so far, The Football Lads Alliance. Matt Barton takes a look at who they are.

*** Above: Norwich fans. Let us be clear we are not implicating these are part of the FLA. ***

International breaks during the season are always a bit dull, especially when the national side aren’t exactly an enthralling watch. So to relieve the boredom during the most recent break, a group of football fans have discovered a way to keep themselves busy, with a 70,000-person march in London. The Football Lads Alliance would like you to listen to what they’ve got to say.

Who are the Football Lads Alliance, and what do they want?

The group exists to bring together football fans of all clubs to oppose and protest terrorism and extremism. Many FLA supporters believe that government and security services do too little to counter terrorism, and that it is necessary to demonstrate their strength of feeling, while maintaining a respectable face to their protest. They’re an explicitly non-racist group, who want their demonstrations to be orderly affairs with no drinking, no chanting and no flag-waving. Their motto is “no racism, no violence: together we’re stronger.”

Well, that sounds pretty reasonable, right?

On the face of it, yes. But many observers are sceptical as to how deeply those ideals are respected across the group’s membership. Anti-racism campaigners have expressed concern that the group could offer an opportunity for far-right groups to promote racism and Islamophobia. Many have pointed to links between this group and far-right street protest groups like the English Defence League. These links are denied by the FLA organisers, but it’s notable that Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, the convicted violent fraudster founder of the EDL was present at the October 7th demonstration.

It doesn’t take a great deal of scratching beneath the surface to see that those voicing concerns about the FLA might actually have a point. For all that they claim to be concerned about extremism of all kinds, comments are easily found that seem to betray more narrowly-focussed intentions. “Every lad that I spoke to yesterday,“ said Yaxley-Lennon, of the October 7th gathering in a now-deleted tweet “was there to oppose Islam.” Not “extremism” then, but Islam.

​It doesn’t take long at all on the FLA Facebook page to find further evidence of this kind of thing.

​

​It’s instructive that the commenter here is complaining about being banned from the page if “muslim grooming” is mentioned. This is exactly what those expressing concerns have warned about - the organisation’s leadership can express inclusivity and opposition to extremism in general as much as they like, but what they’re attracting is people opposed to very specific things. It seems to be naivety in the extreme if the FLA organisers think that publically stated intentions are all that are needed to maintain respectability, when they’re such a honey-pot for those who want a convenient fig-leaf for their own bigotry.

They reckon they’re “inclusive”. Are they?

The leadership certainly seem sincere about welcoming participants from all backgrounds. But that doesn’t necessarily equal inclusivity. For starters it’s a “Lads” alliance. Right off the bat there’s a little over half the population who are wondering how inclusive that inclusivity actually is. I’m completely confident the organisation’s more prominent supporters would point out that the name is just a name, and that which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet, and that women are more than welcome to join them. I’m less confident they’d quote Shakespeare while doing so.

It is true that women and black and minority-ethnic people join in their protests, but even a cursory glance at images of their gatherings demonstrate the demographics.

Image credit: PA Wire/PA Images

Image credit: London Post

It’s aging mayonnaise as far as the eye can see.

Any conclusions?

It seems like there’s three types of FLA follower. The first are sincerely worried about extremism, and particularly about what they perceive as a lack of action, or at least focus, on behalf of the security services. I might quibble with their sense of perspective, but I can’t deny their sincerity.

The second type, and what seem to be the vast majority, are simply out for a decent day out with the Lads. They’ve been chatting to their mates in the local about a day out in London, with lads from all over the country, and they’re game for it. Good chance for some banter, a decent few beers, and a laugh.

But the third type are the ones to watch. They’re the ones that can spot recruitment potential when they see it, and they’re happy for now to not be quite too open about their time with the EDL, with Britain First, with Combat 18 or the National fucking Front.

At this point members of the first two groups are getting furious with me. That’s not what this group is all about, they’ll say. We’re not racists, besides, Islam isn’t a race. But you’d have to be quite naive, or wilfully blinkered, to not realise that nationalist groups haven’t looked at the burgeoning FLA scheme and seen an opportunity to spread their politics.

I’d appeal to the first two groups to be a bit more honest with themselves. They’re keen to protest political extremism, but how many of their number are as critical of Thomas Mair as they are of Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale?

How many of their number are happy to acknowledge that the incidences of death by terrorism now are as low as at any other time during the lifetime of any 45-year-old?

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Farke Fussball T-shirt - International Orders

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A Norwich take on a retro cut. 'All the Germans' inspired the wonderful Ben Stokes to design another tee, so we decided to sell it to you. These tshirts come up a little smaller than our others so possibly best to order a size up. T-shirt currently back on pre-order while we await for further stock to arrive (likely week commencing 19 February 2018) . Shipped ASAP after this time. Price includes international shipping.As usual, any profit made goes back into the running costs of the site and funding Norwich City fan projects.

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submitted to our printers. Shipped ASAP after this time. Price includes international shipping.As usual, any profit made goes back into the running costs of the site and funding Norwich City fan projects.

Canary Cosmos T-shirt - UK Orders

£15.99

A
variation on the Farke Fussball t-shirt, with a NY Cosmos flavour.
T-shirt available to pre-order until 2 February, when the final order will be
submitted to our printers. Shipped ASAP after this time. Price includes shipping to the UK only.As usual, any profit made goes back into the running costs of the site and funding Norwich City fan projects.

Thanks for a well thought out and well written article. I have not seen your blog before but will follow from now on
Good job
OTBC

Reply

Marco l'bone

20/10/2017 22:06:39

Never read so much crap in all my life, positive actions are always preceded by lies fron leftwingers who see witch hunts as the only way to silence common sense from anybody that doesn't share their views.

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Dean Keaton

18/10/2017 14:53:15

Tedious.

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Danny

19/10/2017 06:52:48

So you are basically saying because deaths due to terrorism in the UK is at its lowest then we have nothing to worry about?

Please tell this to the parents of those killed in Manchester!

Very, very poor article which is ill-informed and I bet also contains 3 images that are copyrighted and just nicked from the internet, one being the copyright of Archant. Poor excuse just for clickbait and using the racist card to get attention. Will never read articles from this site again.

Reply

Tom

19/10/2017 14:33:56

2017 stats omitted from the bar chart..

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Marco L'bone

20/10/2017 22:13:29

Yep 2017 not there, and also as they no doubt believe that Europe is a single state, then when they do decide to show stats for 2017, can they include the stats of the entire continent.

Chapper5

19/10/2017 20:34:23

Bye then

Reply

Chris

19/10/2017 07:07:00

An insult to those children murdered in Manchester by using a graph to state the death rate is at its lowest due to terrorism. Just 1 child or person being murdered by terrorists is too many. So are you saying its alright to kill our children but just not too many???

Awful article

Reply

Chapper5

19/10/2017 20:35:52

Nobody is saying that. Why do you make up something and then argue with it the thing you made up? It's weird.

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Chris (another one)

19/10/2017 10:15:02

Good article - they really went to down on those dressings didn't they?

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Cameron Panting

19/10/2017 11:38:30

Great article. There isn't a share on facebook button at the top, which seems mad?

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Chris F

19/10/2017 15:22:06

What a complete load of unsubstantiated bollocks. I went to the march with 5 mates and 3 of then were black. Also marched with Gurkhas and members of the Sikh community. Football fans in most grounds are predominantly white males. As is fairly obvious judging by the photo of the Norwich fans at the top of this story. Or are people of colour not allowed in Carrow Road?? Next time you write about the FLA maybe you should do a little more recearch for yourself instead of believing what the rest of the lefties make up.

What a load of bullshit & ageing mayonnaise as far as the eye can :)?,lmfao.So your saying it's only white racists in the FLA,you ignorant man.I was on the march & i was with the birmigham city FLA who the admin has=Black+White+Mixed Race so what's your answer to that?.TWAT

Reply

Georgie Bless

19/10/2017 16:59:30

You clearly didn't read the article did you as that is totally not what is says.

Reply

Adam

19/10/2017 18:11:42

Idiot it was a march against all extremists although Islam is at the forefront of terror attacks this day and age

Reply

Joe puttnam

19/10/2017 16:46:53

At some stage you people will have to accept that it's not RACIST to recognise the problem with ISLAMIC terrorism is growing out of control. The vast majority of the country recognise this only you the MSM HAVE had them in lockdown under pain of 'islamaphobia and racism' . The days when this will wash are numbered and you can't silence us any longer. Our demos are peaceful and our members are diverse. This is huge and it's getting bigger

Reply

Chapper5

19/10/2017 20:39:07

Along Come Norwich are now part of the Mainstream Media. Good work lads!

Joe, calm down. Nobody is trying to silence your right to march. Chill.

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Richard

19/10/2017 18:10:40

If anyone says the Islamic terrorist situation is a small minority. World wide Islam is about 2bn and anything from 5-10% are "Radical Islamists" that's anything of 100-200MILLION people willing to kill and further their weird ideology. And remember the majority of Germans in the 1930's WERENT NAZIS, but it didn't stop them taking over, and in Russia most weren't Communists but it didn't stop Lenin/Stalin from gaining control......stop being an ostrich and open your eyes to this trouble and how it is growing across Europe

Reply

Chapper5

19/10/2017 20:40:36

Any citations on those numbers, Richard?

Reply

Mac

19/10/2017 18:57:16

You plum

Reply

Chapper5

19/10/2017 20:40:53

You apple

Reply

Not Gammon

19/10/2017 19:25:59

Look at all these oh so peaceful lovable not-in-slightest-bit-racist/xenophobic upstanding members of society commenting above kinda proving the point of the original article.

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Baltan Seijin

19/10/2017 20:47:17

The bar chart totals in your article include the troubles in Northern Ireland and the spike in 1988 was 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing. It omits the 30+ people killed in 2017 (Manchester, London Bridge etc) and does not take into account the amount of plots constantly being foiled. I’m sure some statistics could be conjured up to prove the opposite point.
There is an article in the Spectator (Google it) that has an interesting take on the FLA which I find more convincing tbh

Reply

Chapper5

19/10/2017 20:53:30

They didn't foil attacks in the 80s then? Feel free to 'conjure' up some statistics of your own and show us.

Reply

Baltan Seijin

19/10/2017 21:22:00

Ok how about “900% increase in deaths from terrorism in the UK between 2016 and 2017”
The point I’m making is that there may be something to the old saying “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”

Chapper5

19/10/2017 22:32:46

Well actually, according to my sums, it's a 3,500% increase from 2016 to 2017.

Well played :)

Reply

Baltan Seijin

20/10/2017 19:50:50

I stand corrected :-)

Dean

20/10/2017 06:24:18

You communist prick! You know nothing! Your a traitor..and your mind has fallen to our liberal propaganda bulllshit! Your part of the problem! FLA will make a difference!

Reply

Chapper5

20/10/2017 07:13:43

Haha!

Reply

Danny

21/10/2017 04:17:12

Very lazy stereotyping within this article. I now live in the Norwich area but come from Luton. The two places offer shall we say... Differing challenges to neighbourly harmony. Reading between the lines I finds naivety. I wonder if the author has lived in an environment with a lot of muslims. In my experience, they don't play well with others and never have done. And not calling them out on their secularism is unpatriotic, unwise and cowardly.

Suppression of dissent is state totalitarianism against free speech an expression.
Persecution of those holding a different opinion or viewpoint is becoming endemic, taking this country of openness into a despotic hell hole!
"IF LIBERTY MEANS ANYTHING AT ALL, IT MEANS THE RIGHT TO TELL PEOPLE WHAT THEY DO NOT WANT TO HEAR"
George Orwell.